Self Catering in and around Lostwithiel

Of course it is, unless you are looking for a beach or a buzzing nightclub!

It's the sort of place you visit for its history, for its antique shops or to walk along the river. Go there for a nice lunch or an evening meal, visit Restormel Castle or the Duchy Nursery.

It's got free parking too!

It was the capital of Cornwall back in the middle ages, and you can still see the former Duchy Palace in the heart of the town. Upriver Restormel Castle sits on a hill overlooking the valley, once a hunting lodge for the Black Prince.

Today Lostwithiel likes to call itself the Antique Capital of Cornwall, and there certainly seems to be a good number of shops selling everything from antique furniture to second-hand books. They also have collectors fayres in the community hall on certain Sundays.

The River Fowey snakes its way through 27 miles of some of the finest Cornish landscape, starting high on Bodmin Moor and eventually reaching the sea at Fowey.

It starts off as a group of springs below Brown Willey, Cornwall's highest hill. From there it runs south past Jamaica Inn and down the Draynes Valley to Golitha Falls. Here you will find a car park and plenty of walks amongst the woodland.

Falling off of Bodmin Moor's granite uplands it veers south west meeting the Loveny River near the Trago Mills shopping outlet. Here it forms the wide Glynn Valley, through which also goes the main railway line and the A38 trunk road. It passes Bodmin Parkway Station and then flows through the Lanhydrock Estate at the pretty Respryn Bridge.

It soon reaches Lostwithiel and the tidal part of the river. From here it spreads out, meandering through reed beds and at low tide large areas of mud. Various creeks go off on either side to former ports such as Lerryn and Penpol before it reaches the docks upriver from Fowey.

By now the river has become a deep harbour, full of boats of all shape and size. As far removed from the little boggy springs high on Bodmin Moor as you could imagine.